Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic dies in hospital

Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic in April 1993 | REUTERS

AFP-JIJI

Aug 28, 2026

Belgrade – Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief convicted of war crimes for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, died in hospital on Thursday, according to a United Nations international tribunal.

Mladic, who had suffered several strokes in recent months, was serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity after overseeing the Srebrenica slaughter, Europe’s worst act of bloodshed since World War II.

His conviction for the wartime killings as the former Yugoslavia descended into carnage after the fall of communism led the media to dub him the “Butcher of Bosnia.”

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